Toyota Center renovations may lure free agents

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Dwight Howard’s first free-agency decision — to have suitors come to him in Los Angeles rather than travel the country college-recruiting style — could not have worked out better for the Rockets.

A tour of the Rockets’ home base would not have lasted long. The Toyota Center service level, which for 10 seasons has housed the locker rooms, weight room and assorted other offices and training facilities, looks the same in the hallways as it always has with no signs of changes.

But behind the doors, there is nothing. No showers. No weight equipment. No offices, meeting rooms or training tables. There are no walls.

Nearly the entire east side of the Toyota Center service level has been gutted, the first step in a $4 million project to rebuild the team’s training center.

Putting plan to action

This was not done to entice Howard to call the facility home or even to give the Rockets more to discuss when they meet with him next week.

Senior vice president and athletic trainer Keith Jones has long advocated for the upgrades. General manager Daryl Morey told him before the All-Star break that he had the go-ahead to begin redesigning everything in the basketball complex.

The timing was influenced by free agency, CEO Tad Brown said, with the organization determined to begin the project in time to present as part of the pitch in free agency and to be completed by the start of next season’s camp.

“It’s making sure we’re creating the best basketball facility we possibly can for the players and the people who are working on the basketball operations and team staffs,” Brown said. “They’re going to be in that compound, everything they need to do in that location, and then go upstairs to practice. It’s a much better way to do it.

“We wanted to create a basketball operations complex where everybody is together and it’s very free-flowing, from the coaches’ (offices), into the locker room, into the weight room, into the players’ lounge area. It’s one location. It’s all on one side of the building. We wanted a very open space so the communication and interaction is in the normal course of activity.”

In the past, the weight room was under the stands on the opposite side of the building. The players’ lounge did not stack up with most dentists’ waiting rooms. There was a state-of-the-art video editing suite, but the meeting room for players to watch those videos consisted of metal folding chairs set up on the side of the practice court upstairs.

Players’ amenities

A weight room will be built where the old Comets’ locker room was. There will be a theater-style meeting room near the coaches’ offices and conference room. The locker room will be rebuilt and redesigned in a large semicircle similar to the setups in Miami, Oklahoma City and Orlando. There will be a new training room, players’ lounge and family room. Everything will be connected.

“The big emphasis is on giving our players, coaches and staff the best technology and facilities, the best new media, to prepare for practices and games,” executive vice president Gersson Rosas said, discounting recruiting efforts as a motivation for the project. “We want our new locker room, training room and weight room to help guys reach their potential. It’s critical to contend in the league at this point.”

Recruiting might not have been the motivation, but players have been known to talk about the top training facilities around the NBA.

NBA gossip

“I think it helps a lot,” Jones said. “Some guys are into the wow factor. And NBA guys talk and tell you how good they have it or how their teams take care of them. I think it’s an advantage to have a state-of-the-art facility.

“I think it’s a great recruiting tool and it’s really important. Everything evolves. Sports medicine has evolved. Strength training and performance has evolved. We’re able to catch up and move ahead.”

Brown said facilities are a greater issue in college recruiting than in the NBA, “but it’s definitely a part of it.”

Overall appeal

Another project will have nothing to do with enticing free agents. Most of the west side of the service level also has been gutted to build a second court-level lounge, courtside suites, an additional club and production facilities for concerts and other events at an additional cost of between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.

That work likely will be of more interest to concert promoters than shot-blockers, but Brown said there is a point to be made with both.

“It really is about what do we need to compete in every realm,” Brown said. “Theoretically, it’s all part of it. It’s not the final decision point, but it’s part of the process. It’s like making sure that you use your players, your coaches, your potential as selling points. You also talk about your facilities.”